Aliera e'Kieron
Aliera e'Kieron is a Dragon, the daughter of Adron and Verra. She specializes in sorcery and exercises great skill with a blade. She currently wields the Great Weapon Pathfinder. Her other interests include genetics. Aliera is short for a Dragaeran. Her eyes are normally green but turn grey or blue when experiencing anger or aggression, as is the mark of an e'Kieron. Her hair is blonde, which is also a characteristic of the e'Kieron line, and is very rare for a Dragaeran - especially a Dragon. Aliera descends from the most prestigous line of Dragons. That is, her lineage can be traced back to Kieron himself. The three known members of this line (Kieron, Adron, Aliera) are seen, generally, to be arrogant, to operate at an individual code, to be highly ambitious and to posses a firey temper - even for a Dragonlord. Aliera naturally responds with immediate aggression to all shapes and varieties of challenges but has a more open strategic mindset than a Dzur. She is loyal to friends, and secretly holds both her father Adron e'Kieron and her cousin (on her father's side) Morrolan e'Drien as personal heroes. When we meet her, she is often annoyed by something or someone. History Aliera e'Kieron was born approximately five hundred years before the Interregnum. There is little known of her childhood or education except that it included training in Elder Sorcery and that it fostered a deep respect for her father, Adron. Presumably, she was raised at Redface in the duchy of Eastmanswatch, her father's demesne, but this is not certain. Her arrival at Court in the last days of the Reign of Emperor Tortaalik disrupted the Court, especially the attention of Prime Minister Jurabin and the consort Noima. Noima convinced Tortaalik to search Aliera's guest room for items of Pre-Empire sorcery, which eventually cascaded into a magnificant crisis. This insult resulted in her and Adron demanding apologies from the Empire and Tortaalik's refusal led their declaration as rebels and the organization of a coup. During this time, Aliera was arrested by Khaavren for assisting the escape of Mario after his first unsuccessful attempt at assasination - of Tortaalik (it was during this escape that she and Mario first expressed a romantic interest in one another). Stimultaneously, a certain Jhereg who was the guest of a Dragonlord was assasinated by another Jhereg. The assassin killed enough Dragonlords on his way out to limit Adron's options into relying heavily on magic. Aliera was in the company of Tortaalik when Mario was successful in his second attempt. Meanwhile, Adron commited a flaw in his use of Elder Sorcery which dissolved the capital of the Empire into chaos. It was only due to the timely intervention of Sethra Lavode that saved Aliera from destruction during Adron's Disaster, which destroyed the capital city of the Dragearan Empire and crippled the Orb, though her soul was wrenched from her physical body during the process. She spent most of the Interregnum in a staff. Aliera's soul was found in a Teckla wheat field by Orlaan, who put her in a staff and later traded it for certain services from an Athyra sorcerer named Loraan who used it for magic research. After the Interegnum, its location was discovered by Sethra Lavode and Morrolan e'Drien. They organized an appropriation of the staff with the aid of Vladimir Taltos to navgate Loraan's magical defenses, which ignored Easterners. A fight resulted after Loraan was discovered to be working late. The staff was then carried by Morrolan and Vladimir to the Paths of the Dead to free Aliera. Eventually, they came before the gods and after some minor divine discussion, Verra struck the staff into the side of a well, producing some visual and auditory effects on the present mortals and Aliera's body, which began to breathe. She narrated her earlier memories to Morrolan as a 'strange whining sound almost above her audible range, then the floor shaking, the ceiling and walls starting to buckle, the temprature increasing', she attempted to teleport then saw Sethra's face. She then recalled running through a tunnel as if in a dream without a sense of time. Afterwards, someone - she thinks her mother (Verra) - called her. Aliera displayed physical weakness and had to be supported by both Vladimir and Morrolan to attempt to walk, at which time she was visited by Kieron the Conqurer. A while later, after restoring her strength from Kelchor, they visited Kieron and Aliera requested and recieved his greatsword and was charged to use it well and not to lose it. Upon discovering that the gods did not allow Morrolan to exit the Paths she argued with them about it. Verra refused to alIow Morrolan to leave and dismissed them from her presence. The group wandered around the Paths unable to decide how to progress until Vladimir was able to use witchcraft, extensively, to teleport a mysterious vale of blood from his home then insert it into Morrolan's circulation after which he was barely able to maintain conscioussness (Morrolan was able to exit the Paths without dying). Aliera was grateful for Vladimir for his help. Aliera replaced Morrolan as Dragon Heir. Shortly after her confirmation by the Dragon Council as Heir she began seeking out another candidate (all Dragons hate being Emperor; all Dragons want to be Warlord). She accidently encountered Norathar e'Lanya during her intervention on an assassination targeting Vladimir by the latter. She revivified Norathar and discovered she was a Dragon and related to K'laiyer, and had been accused of bastardy and thus disqualified as Dragon Heir as an infant, according to false genetic scans by Sethra the Younger. She brought forth her own genetic testification before the Council with the help of Morrolan and, after several formal tests subjecting Norathar, she was replaced as Dragon Heir. Shortly after this, Aliera traded Kieron's sword for Pathfinder with Sethra the Younger after dueling her and winning. Aliera later participated in the assassination of a particularly nasty and manipulative Jhereg named Mellar. This was accomplished, in part, by allowing Mellar to kill her with a pair of Morganti daggers. Her soul was saved only due to the fact that she carried Pathfinder, which protected her. When Vlad was imprisoned on Greenaere Aliera together with Morrolan and Cawti went to rescue him, using her skills with Pre-Empire Sorcery to effect his escape. A short time later, she also helped Vlad broker a truce with the king of Greenaere to end the War of 243. A few years after this, Aliera was abducted (along with her cousin Morrolan) by the Jenoine, during their attempt to tap amorphia from the Lesser Sea of Chaos. With the help of Vlad and her mother Verra, they escaped from the prison of the Jenoine, and then aided the gods in foiling their plans to steal amorphia. Aliera then became marginally involved in enlisting the help of Vlad to aid Cawti in her attempts to drive the Left Hand of the Jhereg out of South Adrilankha although she would likely never admit to this. Four years later, she was arrested for practising Elder Sorcery, a long-open secret. This was an apparently politically-motivated charge which neither she nor her friends Morrolan and Sethra were willing to fight. The otherwise-inevitable death sentence was prevented by the intervention of Vladimir. Spoiler At some point Aliera allows her mother, Verra, to set her up on an unusual date with the only man she has ever considered a worthy sire for her child, and so defies time, space, and plane to conceive her daughter Devera. Current Events Aliera currently resides in Castle Black (her cousin Morrolan's demesne) with her cat, and the occasional Jhereg lover sneaking in. Additional Notes Aliera is the reincarnation of one of the founders of the empire, whose brothers were Kieron and Dolivar, who has been reincarnated as Vladimir Taltos. She has undergone regression with Sethra Lavode to recall her past life, and she recognizes Vladimir as well. Her title, announced thousands of years before Vladimir's birth is "Countess of Limterak", although it is not mentioned in Vladimir's time if she still holds it. Relations *Kieron (ancient ancestor, her brother in a former life and love interest) *Adron e'Kieron (father) *Morrolan e'Drien (cousin) *Rollondar e'Drien (uncle) *Dolivar (brother in a former life) *Verra (mother) *Devera (daughter) *Mario (love interest) Quotables "How does genetic heritage interact with reincarnation of the soul? Oddly." "I was afraid Daddy would cause trouble sooner or later." Category:Characters Category:Dragons